001okay oh good evening everyone well thank you for joining our board meeting I called the regular board meeting to order and all the board members are present and Mr beckinger would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag Justice please be advised that in case in the event of fire emergency and an evacuation should be necessary an alarm will sound please note all marked emergency exits and evacuate well away from the building at this time we request everyone turn their cell phones and other devices to silent thank you is there a motion to approve the agenda has presented Miss leckinger and seconded by Mr Manor any discussion all in favor a motion carries unanimously are they any bird acknowledgments Mr Blue yes I'd just like to acknowledge harsh who is the tennis
002coach at Williamsville East and he won Amherst B tennis coach of the year oh I believe his his team went to States and I just thought that was worth the shout out I think the boys went to States twice last year and this year that's awesome Yep I call Miss Black Angie to review our public expression format welcome to all that have come to observe this regular board meeting we don't need to do it okay you have no one signed up today and going to item number five review of The District safety plan Dr Brown Hall and Mr Kens kuzu we absolutely so the district safety plan the revised District safety plan is in board docs I do want to thank um assistant superintendent skin zuzo and district clerk Lynn Carey and the committee for
003developing the safety plan and if you look at the safety plan you will tell that it's actually been redesigned also so I want to thank Nick filipowski and Amy vollwinkle for the redesigning of the district safety plan I also want to have a special thank you to board member vice president kazmeric Bogner for her Keen Eye on the safety plan because there were a lot of things that we had in there previously that we want to make sure we maintain in there so now we will have it for our 30-day comment period also so that the public is now able to look at the safety plan provide any feedback they want then that will be taken back through assistant superintendent scan zuzo to members of the committee to see what may need to be either
004revised enhanced or edited prior to final adoption from the board anything you want to add SS superintendent scan zuzo not at this time okay okay for the public hearing no one has signed up for the public hearing could anyone present in the audience like to speak regarding the revised District safety plan okay moving on uh item six motion to approve consent agenda items has presented this is uh cashback Bogner and second by Miss poison any discussion none all in favor motion carries unanimously at this time I would like to congratulate the newly appointed assistant principles at Mill Middle School we have Laurie Dabney at North High School they have Christian jurgen's tongue at high Middle School we have Lauren milanto and it's South High School where Andrea rozanski I think Nick yeah nick uh you're
005taking your pictures yeah could anyone any of you like to speak at the podium come on now good evening everyone good evening thank you for having me um I just wanted to say thank you to Dr Brown Hall too first thing this is Angel rozanski she is sorry I should have mentioned that no problem she will be the assistant principal at South High School many of you may know her from being assistant principal at Transit middle school but now she'll be the 12 month assistant principal at South High School so thank you very much for that I apologize I should have started Adam Andrea rozanski um I wanted to say thank you to Dr Von Hall the district leadership team the administration itself and all the faculty and staff that were involved involved in the
006hiring process um I'm really just so excited about this appointment as the new assistant principal at South High School um I also wanted to say thank you to all of the wonderful people at Transit I've had a really wonderful year working with them they're really just a great team and they make it hard to leave but um it's really I think difficult to put into words just how excited I am about going to South I start started there as an English teacher about a decade ago and it really has always felt like home to me um I really very quickly fell in love with the community there the culture the traditions and I'm just really excited about going back in this capacity and I look forward to working with the team there to support the
007students itself so thank you very much [Applause] I see Lori Dabney who is going to be our new assistant principal at Mill Middle School is making her way to the podium also Lori Dabney I just want to take this moment to thank you Dr Brown Hall and the Board of Education as well as the team at HR through the hiring process um I'm really excited about this opportunity to learn and grow and support the continuous progress in Williamsville I'm looking forward to this next chapter in my life as I take a step from teaching into this world and um I'm excited to share my life with the wonderful leaders and teachers and students and families and support staff in this District I'd also like to thank Mr McDuffie he has been an incredibly warm and
008welcoming um to the district so I'm really looking forward to this chapter and I'm ready to get to work so I just want to thank you all thank you [Applause] hello everyone I am Lauren moranto I will be the new assistant at Heim um just like at my previous administrators went ahead of me also thank you for this opportunity um I am too very very excited to be joining Williamsville coming out of the classroom and beginning my leadership journey I have heard nothing but amazing things about high middle and Williamsville is a district so thank you very much for this opportunity and I look forward to it thank you Laura good evening my name is Kristen jergensong and I will be the new assistant principal and athletic director at North High School um just wanted
009to again be thankful for everyone's been so welcoming uh over the last couple weeks through this whole entire process um I've worked again very large school districts very small school districts and I feel like this is the perfect fit for me so I'm very excited to get started and I'm very happy to be part of the team welcome aboard thank you [Applause] by this time all of our new assistant principals come up um so that Nick filipowski can take pictures with myself and the executive members of the board foreign hmm okay back on there oh awesome okay uh I would like to thank the following retirees for their service to the district I'm your teacher at Mill for 34 years wow Susan Brownell teacher aide at transit for five years Michelle Collins teacher aide at
010transit for 15 years Santa Dell below teacher Aid at Heim middle school for 33 years Elizabeth Moritz teacher here at South high schools for 30 years and Deborah zonner clerk typist at KC middle school for 30 years wow [Applause] is there a motion to approve the minutes from the July 5th organizational meeting in agenda item 10A Dr Littman Dr Spicer any corrections all in favor motion carries unanimously item 11 residence report we have the board repeat coming up on August 17th as well as the onboarding are all members except for Mr Golden I will be attending any questions or comments [Music] we have the district-wide Dei calendar subcommittee meeting on September 25th and uh an only person attending from the board on that Camry and we have the board Community Forum on September 30th between
0119 to 11 30 am and I think that location is still to be determined though East High School seems likely all of us attending the community forum and in the prior event we had the Western New York law conference on August 2nd which uh Mrs kasmarak Berger and Dr spice attended and the report was submitted would Mrs kasmac Bogner or Dr Spicer have anything to add to it thank you I just wanted to say that I found the event very informative and would suggest that board members potentially look at the slides that were included with the report especially the slides from the keynote which went over some new laws and regulations that are applicable to our work here in the district thank you okay may I say something because what I noticed also at the
012law conference this year in the past years they've actually opened it up to other staff members they've been principals there also so um we're very fortunate because we had our senior leadership team there this year but I think in future years we want to open it up to principles too just so that they get the understanding you know they of course follow policies procedures but so they have a better understanding and grasp of what the law is behind the rules policies and procedures that we make sure are in place every day that's something that we're going to look forward to doing next year too so good question did you say September 25th for the de I think it's the Dei calendar subcommittee that is September 25th because that is Yom Kippur okay you know what
013or Russia I'm sorry which which one I just looked at it I'm sorry I it's is uh the 25th of Yom Kippur oh isn't that our fall recess day too it might be it is okay this is something you might want to well we won't be doing it that day though we set that day I'll be very out we set that date back in our last meeting in May and the reason we set up so far in advance well this is a good uh lead-in to our discussion about the Dei calendar subcommittee right so I might as well take advantage of it so the reason we said it so far in advance is because many of you know following the legislature before they actually ended before they recessed there were several bills looking at holidays
014for schools right now they lay on the governor's desk so we waited to have our next di calendar subcommittee to see what would happen with those so there is one given Diwali off there's one giving off um the Asian Lunar New Year there and some of them only are applicable to districts that have 7.5 percent of the population celebrating and then some of them call for all school districts in New York state to have school holidays so we set that such so far in advance to see if the governor would be signing those because they are not signed yet it gives us a great starting point at the next meeting notice I didn't say September 25th the next meeting for us to discuss how we're going to proceed in Williamsville with looking at what other
015cultural religious holidays we're going to give off so thank you very much for that board member no problem it looks like we'll have to reschedule that yes we definitely will any other questions yeah just a comment I know that um you know the state is saying that we're going to give religious holidays off by name you know we've used in the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur we just call it fall recess so I assume eventually on the calendar if other holidays are mentioned by name that that would be modified you know across the state also I mean New York City has actually has it on their calendar the coming Academic Year Yeah by name yeah yeah so I'm assuming there should be a change coming up at some point yeah and that that is something
016and I I thank you very much for that Dr Lemon that is something we'll definitely take back to the Dei calendar subcommittee because although we do call it far recess and other districts do we we all know what it is right so we can definitely especially in this era that we are in we really should be acknowledging what it is right this consistency absolutely I I appreciate that thank you very much for that I was going to say I expect that that happened because prior you know holidays were to be given for a religious reason and so now we're looking at things much differently yeah yeah so we have to change our language as well absolutely we do any other comments questions okay the remaining policy review committees will be for the 7 000 and
0178 000 series anyone interested in reviewing these policies for 2023-24 I would okay we have uh Mr Manor and Mrs Casper Wagner Dr Littman I've divided you know yeah I was gonna say do we don't want to divide them between the sevens I think the seven thousand is about students and right for the seven thousands I mean who would like to look at Dr Spicer okay let me get this right well seven thousands are Dr Litman Mrs Wagner and Mrs leckinger I'll do that yeah okay then I'll confirm that with everybody thanks and for the 8 000 which is instruction we have Mr Julian Mrs Poulin my brother okay and moving on to New York State the School Board Association we have the back to school dinner at clocks coming up on August 24th I'll
018be attending with Mrs blackinger and Mrs Miss Posen is anyone else interested it's on August 21st I think and there's a nispa webinar I think that's free it's a webinar series it's on the hidden biases of good people on August 14th between noon and 1 30 pm I'll have a I'll be registering for this as well along with Miss poison Mrs kasmarak Bogner and Miss leckinger is anyone else interested in this Dr Lipman is interested 14th this is on August 14th between noon and 1 30. we have actually a webinar every month noon series and so anyone else interested they might have a recording of this after the event so you can always post that and share it among us attended the leadership education event in Albany would you like to say something about it
019um sure it was a lot because it was all day Thursday and half a day excuse me all day Friday half a day Saturday so there was a lot but it was a very um engaging and interesting conference to attend we started out the day with commissioner Rosa and her team who laid out all of the actions that they have going on and the particular and initiatives that are going on particularly around looking at graduation requirements it's been a long-term study when I first came on the board I remember being a part of a conversation in their finaling finalizing that up and they're going to present to the Regents in November so they're looking at high school to career and what the bridges are to make those connections how we need to be preparing our
020students in the high schools to match the career goals that they have not preparing them for college per se but preparing them for career readiness um another very interesting session that I heard was on AI and the influence and impact that that has in all sorts of educational settings and how we adjust to that because it's not something that we're ever going to be able to totally ignore but how are we going to infuse acceptable use protocols with that for students and it really is going to impact the work of the homework committee for sure and how we look at homework right now there are no tools that are effective at really identifying when AI has been used so that's a big thing it was really interesting to hear from so many different school districts
021and some of the things that they're doing um in terms of raising student voice in discipline reform some one school district has Deans in every school building so that that that's the person who manages the multi-tiered program of discipline so that that's their job um in other schools when we're talking about social emotional health of our young people um every member of the faculty and staff in that school district is trained as a youth mental health first aid person so there's lots of things going on and it's good to hear from people from around the state and how they're implementing some of those things and what things we might be able to to learn and move forward ourselves so I think we've got a lot of good things going on and we're making some good
022progress but it's nice to hear what other people are doing too I would also encourage you to read the slides there's slide presentations from all of the workshops there so thank you for the opportunity to do that thank you for doing it uh does anyone else have anything to report regarding ecasb or nispa excuse me I mean I I think I saw the email today regarding this the conference in Buffalo the registration is open today I think um okay approval for attendees for nespa convention the convention is on August 26th to 28th in Buffalo may have a motion to approve the attendees Ms Poland Dr Spicer Dr Littman Mr billing Mrs kasmac Bookner and uh and I will be attending as well and to authorize payment of registration for the network convention has presented but
023before I do that is anyone else interested can I have a motion to authorize payment for registration for the respect Convention as presented Dr Littman Mr Manor any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously and now we go to the superintendent tenants report awesome thank you very much president think um Nick is going to pull that up for me and the King do me a favor can you also pull up um the Strategic plans I'm going to need that later when we talk about goal setting just so you have it ready thank you very much so Community update back to school so the first day for school is Tuesday September 5th it is the day after Labor Day all elementary school supply lists are available online and this year on Wix and we're going to
024be talking about Wix later as an area of focus for the 23 21st school year however this year on Wix parents and Guardians are able to view school events on the same calendar if they have students in multiple schools so this is a key example of seeing how our committee work really informs the work that we're doing at District level because this came up through the communications committee right and we want to make sure we're taking things from the Committees that we're working on and trying to see how we can make it more uh in line with what we're doing in the district so this was a request from parents and now we will see so this is an example Nick has up there so if you go to the fifth this is just an
025example say the 5th of October we have the reading celebration going on at Country Parkway and the diversity assembly at East High School so it's really important that parents are able to see it in a more concise manner now so we want to move that work forward too Yes actually I had a question about that I love the idea it's very good easy you know when you're on the same page but um someone a neighbor asked because they saw on their wits that they had a couple and I went to go check out my wits if you have kids not attending like for example they got Maple West things they got Mill things but then they also saw Williamsville South things but their kids don't go to South is that how it's going to be
026or is that could be fixed or is that is that how it has to be is that how the programs were under no yeah they were just a little confused not seeing it they you know people love the idea of both absolutely they're in two schools but they're getting extra so kind of like that was just a question I wanted to ask that was getting fixed no it's it and that's a good point because I don't want people thinking it's you'll get all the announcements for the theater pattern right right it's really only for the schools that your your students attend okay so thank you very much for that Mr pascalia transportation bus route information will be available the week of August 28th information on special education bus routes will be mailed on Monday August
02721st and the reason that data is important is because of the next bullet special education students and their parents will have the opportunity to meet their school bus driver on Friday of that week Friday August 25th at Maple East Elementary School that information in the specific details will be provided on the bus route ladder that will be sent home to parents that Monday the 21st so you'll have an opportunity to meet your um your students drivers at Maple East Elementary School on Friday August 25th I know that's very important for a lot of our special ed parents prior to school starting School Safety and Security if you've gone by some of our buildings that are under construction you see that construction has continued throughout the Summer with the new installation of the vestibules if you
028look here at district office you see that vestibule is already complete right so we had the fortune of working with Amherst PD today we actually went by uh country Parkway and Mill Middle School so they can get a tour see the new vestibules and then get a a sample of the new lockdown security system so we want to make sure Amherst PD knows all of the information that's necessary so they can assist in the event of a lockdown but you'll see Dodge construction is taking place Williamsville North as you came in you see that is still taking place and then Transit Middle School there's a lot of construction there and at the Hinds so there's a lot of construction going on this summer and we're we're on track right Mr matersky yes absolutely during the
029fall semester the district will be installing and utilizing the Raptor visitor management system so information has already gone out to our building principles our school staff will be sending information to parents also because what's very important is that once this is installed in order to enter a building parents Guardians community members will need to provide a government-issued ID such as a driver's license and that goes through the Raptor system a bag just printed for them and it actually searches the databases of New York State and nationally to make sure anyone's not on one of their child uh Predator lists Mr beulin my only question is what happens if a parent or Guardian does not have state issued ID Well what we'll have to do is take each of those situations separately I know some parent
030or Guardians have ID that's issued out of state or they may have um military ID so we'll have to look at what other ID the Raptor system does allow for but we have to have a way to make sure it will be searchable through the databases that we use thank you absolutely uh parents Guardians and visitors will be provided with the badge identify already said all that okay um but that is what will be in place we've already worked with BOCES to make sure that we're going to have that installed so when it is up and running early fall we'll be able to let all parents know we want to inform everyone now that this will be in place special education advisory committee our first meeting is this coming Monday August 14th it is via
031Zoom future meetings and I will you know talk to the entire committee right now we have 20 members on the committee parents teachers board members and administrators I think the meetings will be um productive via Zoom you know have some Zoom have some in person also for the very first meeting uh executive director Tony Dave of the western New York Education Service Council and the team that actually did the report will be present to answer any questions any of the committee members have just so that we're all on the same footing all committee members have already received the report and so they'll be redoing it we'll come up with the process of how we're going to review the findings the recommendations how we're going to plan and timeline the recommendations that we're going to adopt
032in that report so that first meeting is Monday August 14th and I do plan on updating the board and the community during the community update at each of the board meetings so the community members know how we're progressing but I also encourage parents who are on the committee to report back to the parent group right to sepsa teachers can report to their colleagues board members can give reports here at the board table I will also and then administrators will share with their colleagues also the work that's going on but for the community at large I will be doing also Community update on the work of the special education advisory committee is this going to be a monthly meeting right now it will be every other month so August October December February so that we have
033a good amount of time in between meetings to get good chunks of work done okay and right now we're looking at every other month however when we meet with the committee if we need to add meetings we have the ability to do that also the district website so we don't have anticipate we don't anticipate having a new District website for the start of the school year we are going to be using final site BOCES has finalized the contract with final site and so now we'll be piggybacking piggybacking off of that through both these we will be meeting with BOCES and final site on August 17th to discuss our next District website the communications department and the communications website subcommittee will meet regularly to review and discuss progress of the new District website I will let
034you all know that Nick filipowski has been working tirelessly on pushing this through BOCES making sure that we have final site on board to design our new website the New York State Controllers economic forecast so Tom and I spoke about this and we want to just bring it to the Borg's attention and the community's attention because I know there was before the budget adoption there was a lot of news and noise around our fund balances and you know what fund balances we have and it's important that we have healthy fund balances in the district especially because the New York State Controller updated their state fiscal Outlook in July they updated it such that it's even worse than it was before so for the 23-24 year the deficit has grown by four billion dollars for 24.25
035the deficit has grown by 5.3 billion and for 2526 the deficit has grown by 6.3 billion the reason why this is important is because when we see deficits like that and we know a lot of the pandemic Aid that was given to the state will no longer be in place we have to be very careful and protective of our district budget right because what we don't want to do is anytime take away things that our parents and our students have come to expect from the district and the phenomenal education they receive in the district so the stated reasons for these additional um this additional fiscal Outlook is that the reduction of income tax receipts by five billion dollars annually total revenues to decline by 5.3 percent and expenses to increase by 10.3 percent migration of
036taxpayers paying 43.5 percent of personal income tax receipts out of state Rising Medicaid expenses and again end of pandemic Aid if used to support recurring expenses and the fiscal cliff so that doesn't look good for our state aid allocation going forward so it's important that we do maintain our healthy fund balance uh Dr Brown thank you for this and I think this is uh you know like you said a lot of noise more than news about the uh extra fund balance and It just strikes me as just so strange that the Comptroller will give this almost dire economic forecast which would lead you to believe that our roles should be to have a healthy fund balance right but then he'll come out and criticize a district for having too much of a phone balance but
037it's not really too much of a fun balance we're we're just planning for what you know he is saying is going to happen absolutely thank you very much for that Mr Manning you're absolutely correct directly related to this there was something in the news about the percentage of how the calculate property taxes like uh between the assessed value and for the towns of Amherst and Clarence and you is docs are on the news because we also have that information in board Docs about an assessment a reassessment of the towns no there's a percentage they multiply for each time yeah yeah and that town is what the percentage was different from what was uh estimated earlier and I just want to know how that will impact our school revenue is that the equalization um I'm not
038exactly sure what they were referring to but what I can tell you is that uh all of the Town assessors they go through and they have their tax role certified by Erie County real property tax services so as like today uh this morning I received a very minute change for the town of Amherst so that is now reflected in in the information you now have in front of you those type of changes may still occur between now and when the tax bills are are printed but the assessment changes are very very minimal it might impact like four decimal places out of the tax rates that you're seeing today that most likely is what they're talking about there's been some adjustments there and it also can impact the exemptions for certain classes of the tax rate
039calculation thank you and that was the end of the community update thank you very much Nick are there any questions board members I just have a additional comment going back to the comptroller's forecast I asked Mr metersky earlier to kind of keep a you know a running total don't make it another job that he has to do but I think it's important that the board knows and the taxpayers know when some of these assessment challenges come back or that an Ida abatement that relieves a business from paying their full share of school taxes kind of what that impact is and it's not Millions but is it a hundred thousand is it several hundred thousand over the course of a year I don't know but I think it's important that we have some idea um you
040know because for every dollar that a business doesn't have to pay the taxpayers they're digging in their pocket for that extra dollar so I I just it's important information to have I just saw that whole idea thing about Costco on the news too yeah very concerning they're going to come anyways right why would they yeah it's a whole other meeting but it's but but I mean they are going to get in other businesses tax breaks which means less revenue from them which means we got to get that dollar from somewhere and it's going to come out of everybody watching everybody at home paying taxes and and I think at the end of the year I'd like to tell that the community you know there's 200 300 400 000 that you know is out of the
041budget that should have been in the budget because of the the assessment reviews and the in the Ida uh abatements is this related to the pilot payments too I I'd ask Mr matersky to to kind of like keep a running total because some do not include school taxes some if it's Machinery it may not include School tax it may just be sales tax um but I there is a way to to kind of calculate what what the impact what the fiscal impact is to some of these decisions Dr Whitman has to say I'm just gonna you know uh piggyback on uh Mr men's points the uh you know we as a district I don't believe have much input into what the Ida does uh yeah and I know we get some pilot money of substance
042but again yeah we are as you say losing that tax revenue that Amherst in the state gives away and we don't even have a seat I don't believe on the Amherst Ida board of directors which I always felt the school districts who are impacted should have that's a good point is important if I don't want to talk because the discipline report is next and so I do want to talk about the discipline report because the discipline report and this is a very lengthy report it's very involved when I say lengthy is five pages but I want to make sure that it's of benefit to the board and the community right and so I was having a conversation with assistant superintendent skin zuzo also and I know the whole basis for the discipline report so that
043we can look at how discipline is going in our schools to see if there's any comparisons or comparative model we can use the issue is data in a comparative model is only good when you have the same sort of data being captured and is captured in the same way so until we do that I would I would caution anyone from using it in a comparative manner right I would also want to use this report to look at disproportionality and we can't do that unless we make sure that the input that's going into the report is gathered in the same manner and really looking at suspensions or discipline that is done given to a student I don't know how important it is or that we should continue the process of having three pages of infractions listed
044right per school I mean there's uh three pages of the types of infractions and the number of unique students per building and race race and ethnicity so I I think that might be a higher level report but in the future looking at discipline and suspensions in and out of school I think is what we can streamline this report to to really look at um disproportionality and then we can better track to work with our principals to ensure that the information is being put in in the the same manner in all of our buildings because I know there were questions about some comparisons here and I don't know that we can actually do true comparisons this year we did add the percentages and talking with assistant superintendent skin zuzo I think the percentages are important once
045we have the correct data then we can look across our buildings because if you say you know North High School had a hundred infractions whereas South only had 70 infractions that number will say well North had 30 more well it had 30 more because it's a much larger School building that's why the percentages were important and that's what we'll do going forward but I just wanted to let the board know that's how we're going to move forward with the discipline report just so that it's more useful for the board and the community and will actually you know pare it down so that we have only the pertinent information going forward okay Dr littmann No I would agree that there's a great amount of information and we want to look at disproportionality but the other thing
046is historically through many years the end of the year we or the beginning of the new year we get this retroactive data and I want to see if there was any consensus that maybe we should receive this data maybe at the end of a semester at the half year because again it's like you know all of these things have already happened right no I get that point also you know I'd like to be a little more proactive saying okay here's an issue now how can we over this Academic Year trying to reduce some of those but then in that little extra data Gathering and extra reporting it's just something to think about and I appreciate that if the board will allow us you know um assistant superintendent skin zuzo and I will have conversation about
047that what that will look like um you want to say something just I think when you do that there may be a student who's starting a suspension that might be long term and the fact that it's only in a couple days in from the time the data is pulled that it's not really giving you the effect of What that particular incident involves you'll have to wait till the next you know the group of data or months down the road to to actually get the and that'll always be kind of like a potential situation that we're following that's why this kind of encapsulates the the full picture of a full Year's worth of data regarding discipline I have a question yes so are you saying Dr Brown Hall that the the the schools are still going
048to count these infractions yes so then you report them to us you're going to kind of Pare down we are exactly I mean I think it's pretty obvious like cell phone usage infractions are zero almost in the elementary schools within the middle school and high schools they start growing I mean it's really like you said Pare down what's really pertinent absolutely and and then when looking you'll track it oh absolutely oh no this information will still be tracked because it's useful information for the schools also right because it's useful information when they look at where some incidents are occurring right of course we have more you know cafeteria infractions than other areas so that is useful information but when we also look at percentages and we look at the number of referrals are 300 well
049that makes sense right because referrals will always be more than the number of students you know so those types of things and I think if we offer some explanation in the report also of how the percentages are calculated that would be beneficial also because that was a question that I received from board members so we we are going to revamp this report um very similar to how we revamped the you know District safety plan where we vamping so that it's it's um more useful for our for our board and our community and ultimately for district leadership too and we'll take your suggestion into consideration also um Dr letman if we do go that route because if we even if we did a mid-year and then an end of year right something like that so let
050us work on that all right that's another question yes sir can any of this information um from disciplinary report be used as a metric for looking at our effectiveness of our Dei plan well it can too so when when we identify disproportionality or if we identify not when we say if we identify disproportionality then we can say well what do we need to do to adjust the disproportionality and that's where all of our work and diversity equity and inclusion will come into play yeah if I could just add I'll just State the restorative practices piece that we've implemented has also been getting kids back into school sooner when we have those particular meetings and and the impact that they have on not only the incident itself but then future potential of future instances down the
051road are hope lessened absolutely thank you okay may I have a motion to resolve an approve agenda item 12C dignity for all students act Dessa for the district and building coordinators has presented any discussion all in favor oh sorry yeah well you know just we have the tvas and I would believe typically that would be the assistant principals who just started yeah so yeah those will be updated at the next meeting yep correct uh well all in favor motion carries unanimously may I have a motion for the first reading of the policy updates for numbers five six six one Wellness nutrition and fitness 8330 objection to instructional Library materials and controversial issues and retiring policies numbers 5680 Safety and Security five six eight four pandemic preparedness in workplace and Americans with Disabilities Act and number
0525695 contracts for instruction has presented Dr Spicer and Mrs cosmack Bogner any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously now we will table the policies is there any motion to table the policies for second reading and adoption at the September 12th meeting and Mrs Miss Poland can I ask a quick question yeah I know um I brought up the issue about the controversial issues is that going to be adopted as is as it's no it's if you know what and it's a good thing you accuse right it's a good thing you brought that up that policy has uh Dr Bellin has worked with um our attorneys extensively to update that policy so that's why X is being tabled today when you read it through you'll see how it's been updated and refined and it's it's
053in a very good shape 8330 so it's being tabled today for adoption at the September 12th meeting absolutely um it's heavy you had a first and a second I think you have to do the um any discussion on tabling the policies for September all in favor I just have one comment in the in the wellness nutrition and fitness is there a way to add more in there regarding mental health because I see that in mental Wellness as a part of that that we don't address somewhere else um that's a question as much as a suggestion I I because that has been so prevalent in both the youth mental health Workshop that I or Summit that I went to in New York City with Governor Hogle as well as it was permeated throughout the leadership workshops
054too so um I think that something that needs to be very specifically stated as a part of Wellness may I ask this if you take policy 5661 because it will be tabled and if you have a recommendation will look awesome but if you have a recommendation on where you think we can add that at once we remove it from the table at the September 12th meeting we can then amend it and then we can adopt as amended okay okay absolutely I know that we're saying a lot but it's just the processes thank you very much all in favor of gabling it on September 12th uh Miss schooling and miss leckinger sorry motion carries unanimously it's item number 13 now may I have a motion to resolve to approve and adopt agenda item 13A the 2023-24
055school tax warrant has presented student and Mr billing any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously may have a motion to resolve and approve item number 13B management of reserves has presented Mr Manor Mr Bowen any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously and they have a motion to resolve and approve and authorize agenda item 13c the erie1 BOCES installment purchase agreement has presented Dr Spicer Miss pulin any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously item 13 e and 13 d and e sorry may have motions result approved to approve item 13d non-resident tuition rates and 13e budget transfers has presented it's blackinger and Mr Manor in the discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously they have a motion to approve the liaison assignments as presented spielen miss leckinger any discussion all in favor motion
056carries synonymously please contact the please make contact with the building principal at the school you assigned to prior to September 1st this carry will be updating the section when more information is available there is nothing to discuss under legislative matters in item 16 may have a motion to adopt professional learning plan for 2023 2024 has presented Dr Spicer Emmanuel any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously personnel it may help promotion to adopt and approve substitute teacher pay rate increase has proposal as presented miss blackinger Mr Manor any discussion it just I didn't see it anywhere but for comparison data how you know how do we rank without the school districts and again are they raising their substitute pay rates also fixed and um so this is uh like a constant race we're in no
057yes other districts and that's what we're trying to we're trying to maintain the average right yeah we can't be at the top in this area because some districts especially our rural districts have really gone out out there right but what we're trying to do is we're maintaining our building sub so that we have substitute teachers that really get used to a building and they become comfortable there right and they're more than likely to remain in those positions but we do have the per diem rate that we needed to increase because we want to give back working with London way um and Dr Bell and we want to get back to where we're able to offer more professional development during the day right the only way you're able to do that is you have the necessary
058substitute teachers to cover so that's why we're thinking increasing our rates um to these amounts will allow us to do that yeah and so we are average with the other districts especially our surrounding districts like sweet home Amherst Clarence and Orchard Park correct Dana yeah and just as an aside you know we did have a large number of teachers who retired last Academic Year and you know as you mentioned are good opportunities for them to come back and serve as substitute teachers yep I encourage them at that retirement I encourage them so we have that proposed rate increase also yes a good one I my question is is there still a limit on the number of days a non-certified teacher can sum there is there is an and was it 30 40 it's 40. it's
059for and Danica speak more to that because especially circumstances special circumstances we can go up to 90. yes that's correct um right now the state regulations allow for an uncertified teacher to teach as a per diem substitute uh for up to 40 days if we're able to provide demonstration to um the state that we are unable to fill a specific position um in an area that an uncertified substitute teacher is taking classes in in order to become a certified teacher we can go up to 90 days and there's a waiver process through BOCES that we utilize for that [Music] quick question about the bonuses I was reading this over so if a sub Works 55 days per semester so you know first and second Market period they receive a bonus in 250 days for 50
060and then the same with 80. for 500 if you're building some now is that consecutive days is that if you just total number total number okay I think that helps I mean it does so what we I wanted to clarify that because it's hopefully Subs are hopefully people want to solve our listening but that is a benefit I think absolutely and what we wanted to do is is to be more flexible with that also and I I don't know if anyone saw Dana's interview with channel 2 today about Staffing and things like that she did a very good job but one thing we discussed also is really highlight our flexibility because building subs and when you when you were a building sub you were committed we needed you to do all five days and a
061lot of building Subs are saying well I I can't do all five days at least so we're um I think it's four days we we said we we need you to do so we want to be more flexible because we we want the individuals to choose Williamsville to be building subs and per diem Subs and we think those bonuses will help also absolutely um can I just say that the the Buffalo bonus is substantially higher with a few more days I know thank you very apples that public Mr Beulah while we're trying to recruit yeah no I know I know I'm just just pointing it out I know and the the difficulty is when you're looking at larger districts like that with with you know we're trying to make sure we're amongst the average of
062our Suburban counterparts right now I just thought it was interesting yeah the health the benefit is you're subbing and getting your foot in the door yes Williams yeah there you go any other questions all in favor motion carries unanimously may have a motion to resolve and approve the 10-year approved appointments as presented Miss Poland Dr Litman discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously there are no matters to discuss under uh 18 and 19. does anyone have any item to discuss under the committee of the whole [Music] correspondence does anyone wish to discuss any correspondence received I think we got three emails one was regarding information about political affiliations of Bui candidates and the PTA septic meeting dates and one attacking us for the increase in substitute teacher pay I haven't seen any responses you didn't
063die in this point yet okay and um would someone like to make a motion to recess a regular board meeting to conduct the goal setting Workshop is it Dr lipmann is Poland any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously uh I would like to call the goal setting work session to order Dr Brunner would you begin reviewing the district goals for the next year absolutely thank you very much so the district goals for next year Nick if you could pull up the Strategic plan and I know I spoke about this last year and I want to reiterate it this year because we have a strategic plan that was adopted by the board it's really important that we focus our district goals on being that of the Strategic plan and the reason that's so important is
064because everything that we do and will be in line with the Strategic plan and the goal areas what we need to do however is have a better vehicle for reporting out our progress with the Strategic plan and reaching those goals so what I propose is that we're going to develop a compendium so that you can see specifically how each school is addressing their strategic plan goals and how we as a district are addressing the Strategic plan goals because the goals the overarching goals are one thing but then we have goal activities that are in here also so for each of the gold areas communication teaching learning and Leadership Dei we want to show Wellness Community and sustain ability we want to show how we're reaching that at a school level but also as a district
065level so it makes no sense for us to change District goals annually because our strategic plan is a five-year plan so it's important we stay on that track but show in January and in June how we're reaching those goals and develop in conversations with board president Singh develop a simple one-pager so our community can see year after year how On Target we are to reaching our strategic plan goals so the district goals this year will remain the same as last year focus on the Strategic plan we will have a better vehicle to update in January and June how we reach those goals what I do want to take a moment to do is discuss the document that I sent to board members about the focus items for consideration during the 23-24 school year I'm going
066to go through those items and then instead of us prioritizing which items are the focus of 2324 what I want to propose is that they're all important and we will start them all however the timeline for each of these items will be different right so for example number one the special education review that was part of our work last year this year is the implementation of an actualization of the recommendations and further understanding the best practices so we have our CX set up but we'll develop a timeline in the special education advisory committee in regard to those recommendations so there will be work on the special education review however the timeline will be coming out of CX number two the new District website that is a goal for this year and that's something that extended
067from last year and our rebranding so we will still be moving that forward and that's the work of Nick filipowski and the communications committee number three was a multi-year goal development of a Williamsville Family Support Center now that is important and I will timeline that out because that's not something we'll get done in 23-24 right the study of other District districts the student family support centers has been done will continue to do that Dr debate retired but Dr debate agreed to assist us with that work also so that's something we'll develop and timeline out because that'll be a multi-year goal the development of a Williamsville Family Support Center the grading and the homework committee work focused around the work of the book rethinking grading that work I know that Dr Bell and have that committee
068formed and that work will be continuing but that needs to be timelined out also because it's not something that will come to an end at the end of this school year now the consistency in exams and local exams that's a chunk of it right consistency and Grading and homework that's another chunk so those seem like multi-year goals right or Focus areas so we'll timeline that out for the board too mental health supports and I know that's the big thing it's a big Push by Governor holkle it's a big Push by our Board of Education I know board member Poulin spoke about what was discussed in Albany how that's a big push that also is very important but we'll timeline that out we'll look at the best practices and the ratios of support I know nisbah
069had a very large article about it in the onboard magazine a couple of months ago so we'll look at that and how we stack up in our district and what some recommendations will be number six the green ribbon school's designation that's in our strategic plan so we need to timeline that out and what that application looks like through New York state so we can get that U.S Department of Education designation as a green ribbon District now the first step they say is you need to form a committee for that so we'll timeline that out because this will be the year of forming a committee and then really chunking what that application looks like and what we need to have in place number seven school start times and high school scheduling this is something that has
070come up before about looking at our high school scheduling to see if there's a way that we can schedule downtime or lunch time for every student but we also want to look at the growing growing research that talks about school start times and when the optimal school start times will be and discussions with our chief academic officer Dr Balin we said we're going to ask our high school principals to lead this work so I spoke with principal Keith Boardman and he's going to be one of the co-chairs of that study group when looking at this high school work right so we'll have principal Boardman will of course have our director of Athletics because the school start times really influence when our games and practices can start so that'll be a work study group that we
071will start this year will there be changes 24 25 maybe not but possibly 25-26 all right so we'll timeline that out last but not least is the Wix cleanup and upgrades that's something I heard from family members from board members community members that Wix at times can be cumbersome right so we're going to look to clean it up and to upgrade it to Wix 2.0 so that it's more useful and then figure out what maybe need to move what may need to move to other programs we have in the district so again all these areas of focus are important but I suggest that I you allow me to timeline them out to see you know what will take multi-years what can be done this year but we will get started in all all these areas
072of focus with the board's approval the timeline for the timeline good question um because my goals have to be in super eval for more consideration by the end of this month by the end of this month we'll have a timeline because I want to put in what's feasible for this year because that's what then I will be rated on come May and June and then we'll look at what then will extend to the following years the order of priority right now it is not and I didn't want I should have said this is not the order of priority this is just the order of listing okay like I was just curious because number three and number five they can be combined into one big bigger goal and the reason I don't think they can is
073because I don't want number three holding up number five so people are homework saying what's number three number three is the development of the Williamsville Family Support Center number five is our examination of our mental health supports study of best practices and ratios in the district that will include the uh first aid Mental Health Training that we want to make sure we bring into the district too so I don't want to hold one up without the other that's why I separated them and because if you're going to have a mental health center here you're going to work with our Erie County as well as both seats too and I wanna and I want to make sure we're talking about the same thing Dr Singh because a Family Support Center in the mental health center to
074me are two different things and I want to make sure that we um and I can go into more detail of what I mean when I say Family Support Center because it's not necessarily A Mental Health Center will we offer counseling and some mental health supports depending on what community-based organization we partner with absolutely but it's not going to be a mental health center okay any other board member questions okay well that's it for the district goals Dr Singh um Board of Education goals are on board Docs at this time are there any changes or edits to the goals uh yes I don't really have a change or an edit but I did want to bring up something as a potential proposal for the new board government school one of the things that we have
075under that goal is strengthening the onboarding process for new board members and I was wanting to hear other people's thoughts about maybe ways to do that but I also wondered about considering uh starting an ad hoc onboarding committee that would do the research and then report back to the board about best practices maybe in other districts and then formulate an action plan based on that research so I I guess I'm wanting to know what are other people's thoughts about starting a committee or if we should just work as a board of the whole to through those steps are you suggesting an ad hoc board committee to look into it correct okay correct yeah I think that's a great idea focus on best practices and see what other districts are doing good idea Spicer well in
076heaven at first yes I think an ad hoc committee would be would be great I'd be happy to work with that I also gave Dr Singh a guidance document from lesba that I picked up um on that very topic so [Music] so you've already started the research I have thank you I was also just going to offer as a new board member um it would be nice to have some measures to that goal um just because onboarding is a little bit confusing right now just for to be transparent I do think it would make sense to have um a well pretty much everyone here is relatively new to the board but to have a very recent board member participate on the ad hoc committee if we could to provide feedback I think that would be
077helpful happy to um any other changes comments edits yeah what you're just making uh I just wanted to make a comment for people's input uh under teaching learning and Leadership uh we mentioned routinely Advanced individual student growth you know and we use that a number of times but we never mentioned academic achievement or academic proficiency and I think that is over the last number of years has dropped off and maybe I just missed it but I think somewhere it should say something about academic achievement or academic proficiency unless I missed it somewhere along the way please suggesting as a measure for number one um and the teaching learning and Leadership I mean says remote Advanced individual student growth uh but it you know again we talk about teaching and learning it doesn't say anything in
078my mind is old school educator that we're looking at academic proficiency or those types of things and maybe I just interpret it differently so I just want to bring that forward to see what other of the board colleagues were thinking I mean you may read it in there I don't I think that we actually discussed this last year yeah yes uh and that was that student growth part is including academic progress and that's why I was then we have to believe we changed it with social emotional skills you know in our diverse community so that social in my mind that student growth is that growth of academics yes that's the way I read it that's what I'm saying I understand that but I just when I don't see one of the broad responsibilities is the
079academic achievement of students in the district but we never clearly state that you know we hide it in terms of some not hide it I don't I don't think we're hiding in that and speaking again from the conference in Albany that that term is one that's being discouraged because it has too many other implications so growth potential is much more what we're looking for and of course that includes academic achievement yeah to set that specific bar as as the the goal um is not giving Credence to the wholeness of the individual yeah I mean it's oh that's only that's only a piece yeah so I mean I would agree it's not necessarily the most important yeah but yeah it's just how we make sure that we are thinking of that piece also I know we've
080had the discussion before um but again it's how you interpret the readership of what it says there and I look at it one way and other people look at it differently I would offer that the um the language of the the entirety of the goal um how it underlines the responsive educational practices that Advance individual student growth Etc educational practices underscores um our goal in educating um but also if we're talking about Equitable policies um growth measuring growth from where somebody is at is more Equitable and inclusive sounds reasonable thank you [Music] yeah fine any other questions um can I just ask for the ad hoc committee are we adding that as a measure um to the goals or I'm not sure what comes next from that suggestion if there's an agreement we can add
081an add-up commit create an adult committee for that okay yeah for governance number three yeah under measures um create an ad hoc committee yep best practice for onboarding okay and then having also assigning board members to track certain goals right okay we have a motion to adjourn the gold setting work session improve the goals do we have to improve the goals yeah okay sure equipment all in favor motion carries unanimously thank you may have a motion to return to public session Dr Spicer Mr Manor all in favor motion carries unanimously you may have a motion to approve and adopt the Board of Education goals presented or and or edited in 23c is blackinger all in favor motion carries unanimously our next regular board meeting is on September 12th and I hope you have a great
082start to the school year and we have a motion to adjust the regular board meeting this blackinger Mr Manor all in favor motion carries unanimously thank you